Hope

From Fred Lapides at Good Sh**. Which is definitely Not Work Safe. So you will have to look him up.

The Police Will Be Sticking It To You

In the not too distant future police will be drawing blood from suspect motorists. No consent required.

When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he'll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle. Nowadays, his eyes will also focus on the driver's arms, as he tries to search for a plump, bouncy vein.

"I was looking at people's arms and hands, thinking, 'I could draw from that,'" Dowell said.

It's all part of training he and a select cadre of officers in Idaho and Texas have received in recent months to draw blood from those suspected of drunken or drugged driving. The federal program's aim is to determine if blood draws by cops can be an effective tool against drunk drivers and aid in their prosecution.

If the results seem promising after a year or two, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will encourage police nationwide to undergo similar training.

I don't think I like this. Police could use the pretext of a traffic stop to torture people with needles. "Confess or we will draw blood."

I want my America back. And this kind of stuff is certainly not the America I grew up in.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Bottle Vs. The Bong

Note the cute bartender who says that pot smoking is safer for you.

Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Alcohol Eases Anxiety

I have been looking for this information for a long time. Alcohol in large enough quantities is a depressant. However used in moderation it has anti-anxiety effects. Similar to anti-depressants.

Alcohol is a drug, but for many people it's also a tool.

Many people have a drink or two from time to time to feel more comfortable and relaxed.

Dr. James Bolton, a psychiatrist at Health Sciences Centre and an associate professor at the University of Manitoba, said the use of alcohol as a sort of social lubricant is nothing new.

"Alcohol is the oldest anxiety remedy known. People drink because it works," he said.

"For most people, enjoying a few alcoholic beverages as a social lubricant is fine. It's people who have anxiety disorders or other mental illnesses who are at risk."

Bolton was one of the authors of a recent paper involving people with anxiety disorders who self-medicate with alcohol.

They are more likely to use alcohol as a social lubricant and more likely to run into problems with drinking, he said.

"People use alcohol with the intention of relieving anxiety, but unfortunately the effects of alcohol seem to worsen the symptoms of anxiety and actually lead to other problems with mental illness," said Bolton.

After drinking, people who self-medicate with alcohol often feel even worse, said Bolton.

"The withdrawal effect the next day leaves people more anxious," he said. "What seems to happen over the long term with chronic alcohol use is that people have elevated rates of anxiety."

So the anti-anxiety effects are immediate and the depression doesn't set in until later and long term use as an anti-anxiety medication can lead to a worse psychological state.

Is there something better out there? You bet.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13, 2005 (UPI) -- Scientists said Thursday that marijuana appears to promote the development of new brain cells in rats and have anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effects, a finding that could have an impact on the national debate over medical uses of the drug.

Other illegal and legal drugs, including opiates, alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress the formation of new brain cells when used chronically, but marijuana's effect on that process was uncertain.

Now, a team led by Xia Zhang of the department of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon may have found evidence the drug spurs new brain cells to form in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, and this in turn reduces anxiety and depression.

Marijuana appears "to be the only illicit drug whose capacity to produce increased ... neurons is positively correlated with its (anti-anxiety) and anti-depressant-like effects," Zhang and colleagues wrote in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Well what do you know? Marrijuana has positive short and long term effects when it comes to treating anxiety. I also looked at the issue in Brain Growth.

In the aftermath of the American Civil War alcohol was considered an acceptable drug for treating PTSD (although it didn't have a name back then). I covered that in The Soldiers Disease. Typically we used anti-depressants these days although some doctors think Cannabis is the Best Medicine.

H/T Anxiety Insights

The Soldiers Disease

There was a time in our nation's history when alcoholism was considered an honorable disease. And why would that be? Interesting question. Reader dthardy from Of Arms and the Law sent me this interesting e-mail in reference to one of my illegal drugs as self medication articles:

I once knew a psychiatrist lady friend, and her theory was that a lot of illicit drug use involved self-medication of one type or another. It was the only possible explanation for an illicit market in anti-psychotics, for instance.

It's also interesting that in 19th century wars alcoholism was taken as pretty much normal -- the only way to counter the stress and PTSD. U.S. Grant wrote a letter of rec. for a retired soldier which said that he has only the vice expected of an old soldier, and expected his reader to understand that the fellow had a drinking problem and nothing else. When he in his memoirs damned a cowardly officer who was a drunk, he said words to the effect of he drank too much and had another vice not so often found in military officers. (One of his best friends, a brigadier who was killed at Wilderness, *always* went into battle drunk. His troops wrote with amusement of his having charged his horse thru their line, literally thru it, then shouted that we will cut them down as I cut down this tree, whereupon he swung an axe at a sapling, missed, and nearly fell from the saddle. Grant merely said that he was the bravest officer he'd even known, and apparently his going into battle under the influence was regarded merely as an eccentricity.

And then there was the confederate account to the effect of the general gave the order to charge, but he was already well charged himself.

There was a time when we understood PTSD implicitly. Oh, we didn't have the science down. We didn't have a name for it. However, on a fundamental human level we knew what to do about it. By 1900 it was also understood that cannabis was a substitute for those who were debilitated by alcohol. It served the same purpose and was easier on the body. Nowadays in the military self medication with alcohol (or cannabis for that matter) is grounds for dismissal.

We have gone backwards in our understanding and forwards in our "morality". I don't think it is an improvement.

PTSD Pot Alcohol & Substance Abuse

The Israelis (as usual) are ahead of the game. They plan to soothe trauma with marijuana. This has been a hot topic with me for several years.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers traumatised by battle with the Palestinians have a new, unconventional weapon to exorcise their nightmares -- marijuana.

Under an experimental programme, Delta-9 tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient found in the cannabis plant, will be administered to 15 soldiers over the next several months in an effort to fight post-traumatic stress disorder.

Raphael Mechoulam of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, the chief researcher behind a project he described as a world-first, said the chemical could trick the brain into suppressing unwanted memories.

Mr. Mechoulam wants you to know that you are not to confuse pills given to you by a doctor with that evil weed smoked by undesirables. Right.

Meanwhile I have come across this interesting .pdf published in 1996 about the relationship of PTSD to chronic drug and alcohol use. They can even predict from the type of PTSD whether drugs or alcohol will be preferred by the patient. I'm going to have to look into that.